Are you looking for a good audit report example?

Are you looking for a good audit report example? Well, consider the following real-life examples from three city auditors that I have curated for your consideration.

None of them are perfect because no written document is ever perfect (for proof of imperfection, reference any of my books or blog posts!), but each has compelling positive attributes that you could integrate into your own audit report.

I am not going to list their negative qualities because you guys are auditors; you can find negative qualities all day long, all on your own. Instead, focus on the positives and consider whether a few small changes could make a big difference to the readability and digestibility of your audit results.

Good audit report example 1: City of Austin

Really good things:

• the conclusion and an informative image of the call center is on the cover page
• findings and recommendations are clearly labeled and titled
• headers are mapped on the left hand side of the text to allow for white space and scrolling
• titles do some heavy lifting. In other words, they convey whole thoughts and concepts instead of blandly saying ‘finding 1: goals, finding 2: education’ etc. Readers can get the gist of the report by only reading the titles
• graphics are attractive and fun to review
• the report is relatively short – clocking in at only 14 pages total
• technical audit stuff (methodologies, GAGAS compliance statement) is put far in the back of report out of the reader’s way

Good audit report example 2: City of Portland

Really good things:

• the title of the report is the overall conclusion
• the summary is short, compelling and very easy to read
• the summary includes quantification (dollar figures) to describe the impact of the issue
• the title, “Why audit overtime?” is a nice replacement for the typical ‘Background’ title in most audit reports and begins with quantification and compelling data
• quotes from the auditee bolster the auditor’s argument and show they are listening to the community
• the back cover encourages readers to connect with the City Auditor through a variety of methods
• user-unfriendly mandatory elements (objective, scope, and methodology) are shared in the back of the report where they belong

Good audit report example 3: City of Dallas

Really good things:

• recommendations (arguably the most important component of an audit report) appear repeatedly on an early page of the report in the executive summary, within the body of the report, and at the very end of the report in a table
• the executive summary is comprehensive (includes the audit objective, recommendations, major findings, and a little bit of background)
• the executive summary is one page long
• a graphic or an image appears on almost every page of the report, increasing the perceived readability and user-friendliness of the document
• the waterfall graphic describing the reading habits of other cities on page 9 is memorable
• a table including risk ratings, auditor recommendations, and the client’s action plans is included at the back of the document which reiterates major points and makes the next actions clear

To find out more about how to streamline your reporting process and put out a product you can be proud of, please join me for the Audit Reporting Clinic next May. We will spend time looking at formatting and sequencing of content, but our main objective will be to write short, compelling findings, recommendations, and conclusions.

If you have a report you want to share, please write to me at info@yellowbook-cpe.com so I can share it with other auditors who are looking for a good audit report example.